3.1. Material Characterizations
The inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES) analysis was used to investigate the cation ratio of as-obtained cathode materials, and the results are listed in
Table S1. The results indicate that the experimental results are in good agreement with the design values.
Figure 1 shows the X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) patterns of the samples and their Rietveld refinement results.
Figure 1 indicates the presence of a lamellar α-NaFeO
2 structure with the R-3m space group in the four samples, and the characteristic peak in the range of 20-25° also demonstrates the presence of the Li
2MnO
3 phase with the C2/m space group in the samples. The clear split of the (006)/(102) and (108)/(110) peaks implies a highly ordered layered structure of the samples [
20]. In addition, other peaks can be clearly observed near 18, 30, and 35°, and the peak intensity increases with the increase of Li
2MoO
4 coating amount. After analysis and comparison, it can be determined that the weak peak is the spinel structure of Li
2MoO
4 (
Figure S1 [
21]).
we performed a Rietveld refinement on the XRD curves of four samples using a two-phase structure model consisting of rhomboidal R-3m and monoclinic C2/m phases, and the results are shown in
Figure 1b-e. According to reports, the diffraction peak intensity ratio between the planes (003) and (104) can be used to estimate the degree of Li/Ni mixing. The smaller the ratio, the greater the degree of Li/Ni mixing [
22]. As shown in
Table 1, the ratios I(003)/I(104) of all samples are greater than 1.2, indicating a lower Li/Ni miscibility [
23]. Compared to the original sample, the ratio I(003)/I(104) of the sample coated with Li
2MoO
4 decreased slightly, possibly due to the intensification of Li/Ni mixing during high-temperature calcination during the preparation process. Among them, the ratio I(003)/I(104) of the 3wt% sample is closest to the original sample, and the content of Ni
2+in the Li layer in the refined results of
Table 1 also corresponds to the ratio I(003)/I(104). Additionally, the spacing between layers of the sample coated with Li
2MoO
4 increased slightly, possibly due to partial doping of Mo in the TM layer on the surface. The subsequent X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results provide evidence for this result. However, the ratio between the lattice parameters c and a of the four samples is greater than 4.99, indicating that the samples have a fine-layered structure [
24]. At the same time, the content of Li
2MoO
4 in the coated samples was refined and the results are shown in
Table 1. Except for the low peak intensity of Li
2MoO
4 in the 1wt% sample, which cannot obtain the content of Li
2MoO
4, the content of Li
2MoO
4 in the 3wt% and 5wt% samples is in good agreement with the design values and ICP results.
The morphological characteristics of the prepared samples were investigated by scanning electron microscope (SEM), and the obtained images are shown in
Figure S2. The morphology of all the sample particles is spherical and the diameter of the secondary particles ranges from 10 to 15 μm. Primary particles can be clearly seen on the surface of the original sample particles, but the surface of the coated Li-rich material becomes smooth.
Transmission electron microscope (TEM) and fast Fourier transform (FFT) were performed to display the crystal structure near the surface areas of the 3wt% sample. The Li
2MoO
4 coating layers on the surface of the material can be clearly observed in
Figure 2a.
Figure 2b shows clear lattice stripes of the layered structure. Combining with the FFT image (
Figure 2e) of the corresponding position in
Figure 2d, it can be determined that the spacing of lattice stripes is 0.474 nm, which is very consistent with the plane (003) of the R-3m space group of the li-rich layered structure. Through the analysis of the FFT image of the blue region in
Figure 2c, it can be found that a spinel structure coating is formed on the surface of the material coated with Li
2MoO
4. The thickness of the coating can reach over 20 nm due to not only the unique spinel structure of Li
2MoO
4 formed by coating, but also the spinel phase formed by the detachment of some Li from the material surface during the formation of Li
2MoO
4 coating [
21]. To further investigate the existence of the Li
2MoO
4 coating layer on the surface of 3wt% sample, EDS was carried out and the corresponding elemental mapping is shown in
Figure 2f-k. The elements of Mn, Co, Ni, O, and Mo are evenly distributed on the particle, illustrating that the Li
2MoO
4 layer was successfully coated on the bulk material.
X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements were performed to confirm the composition of the surface elements and the chemical state of the Pristine and 3wt% samples (
Figure 3 and
Figure S2).
Figure 3a and b present the XPS full spectra of the Pristine and 3wt% sample, respectively.
Figure 3c shows that the 3wt% sample had a Mo 3d photoelectron emission intensity peak near 232 eV and235 eV, which corresponded to Mo 3d
5/2 and Mo 3d
3/2, respectively, indicating that Mo
6+ on the surface of 3wt% sample may be in the form of Li
2MoO
4, and the presence of Mo
4+ indicates that some Mo
6+ is doped in the lattice interior to convert to Mo
4+ to maintain electroneutrality [
25].
Figure S2 presents the XPS spectra of Mn, Co, and Ni elements for Pristine and 3wt% sample, respectively. The valence states of Mn, Co, and Ni do not change greatly, which indicates that the coating maintains the original system status of the Li-rich materials.
3.2. Electrochemical Performances
Figure 4a shows the initial charge-discharge curves of the four samples (2.0-4.8 V, 0.1 C). During the first discharge, the Pristine, 1wt%, 3wt%, and 5wt% sample release 259.65, 250.29, 257.31 and 248.74 mAh/g, respectively, corresponds to Coulombic efficiencies of 56.66, 76.92, 77.79 and 75.16%. All samples show the typical initial charge process of Mn-based lithium-rich cathode materials. In detail, the charge curve can be divided into two parts, a sloping part below 4.5 V and a long plane part at 4.5 V. The sloping region belongs to the oxidation reaction of Ni
2+/Ni
4+ and Co
3+/Co
4+, while the long plateau is related to the oxygen activation of Li
2MnO
3 [
26]. Compared to the original sample, the platform of the sample coated with Li
2MoO
4 becomes shorter near 4.5 V. This is because the formation of the Li
2MoO
4 coating layer removes some Li from the material and pre-activates the Li
2MnO
3 component [
27,
28]. Therefore, the sample coated with Li2MoO
4 has a higher initial Coulombic efficiency. The cyclic performance of four samples at 1 C is shown in
Figure S4b. For comparison purposes, only the cyclic performance of the Pristine and 3wt% samples is shown in
Figure 4b. The results showed that the Li
2MoO
4 coating improved the cycling performance of the material, with only 69.25% capacity retention rate of the original sample after 100 cycles, while the 3wt% sample still had 81.85% capacity retention rate after 100 cycles.
Figure 4c shows the rate performance of the samples. The discharge capacity of all four samples decreases with the increase of current density, with a 3wt% sample exhibiting the best rate performance. The spinel has a 3D Li
+ channel compared to the 2D Li
+ channel of the LRMs, which favors an improvement in the rate capability [
29]. Meanwhile, Li
2MoO
4 belongs to the fast-ion conductor, which is conducive to Li
+ transport. Therefore, the material coated with Li
2MoO
4 has higher rate performance [
30].
In addition, according to
Figure 4d and e, the Pristine sample exhibits faster voltage and capacity decay, which is also one of the main problems of Li-rich materials.
Figure 4f shows that the average voltage decay of the 3wt% sample (voltage drop of 4.98 mV per cycle, 100 cycles) is less than that of the Pristine sample (voltage drop of 7.06 mV per cycle, 100 cycles) at high cutoff voltage (4.8 V). The increase in capacity and discharge voltage retention of the 3wt% sample is due to the effective reduction of direct contact between the electrode and the electrolyte by the Li
2MoO
4 coating, which inhibits the erosion of Li-rich materials during discharge, prevents the oxidation of the electrolyte on the surface of the cathode material during charging, and improves its structural stability.
Figure 4.
(a) AC impedance spectra of four samples, and (b) equivalent circuit diagram and impedance parameters of the samples. (c) CV curves of 3wt% sample.
Figure 4.
(a) AC impedance spectra of four samples, and (b) equivalent circuit diagram and impedance parameters of the samples. (c) CV curves of 3wt% sample.
In order to investigate the kinetic properties of the prepared samples, the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurement was conducted. As shown in Figure 5a, the impedance curve consists of a semicircle whose diameter represents the charge transfer resistance (Rct) and the oblique line represents the Warburg impedance. The equivalent circuit and the impedance parameters fitted to four samples are shown in Figure 5b. As expected, Rct decreased after coating with Li2MoO4, which was attributed to the spinel structure of the Li2MoO4 coating that is capable of providing 3D channels for Li+ diffusion, which is favorable for Li+ diffusion.
Figure 5c shows the CV curve of the 3wt% sample between 2.0-4.8 V. During the initial charge and discharge cycle, the CV curve exhibits two different oxidation processes, corresponding to the oxidation reaction of Ni2+/Ni4+ and Co3+/Co4+, and the activation of the Li2MnO3 phase, respectively. When the voltage is higher than 4.5 V, the deintercalation of Li would be accompanied by the release of oxygen, but there is no oxidation peak at 4.68 V in the subsequent cycles [31]. The activation of the Li2MnO3 phase occurs only during the first charge discharge cycle, which is also the reason for the low initial Coulombic efficiency of Li-rich materials.